Customer Reviews

America the Vulnerable: How Our Government Is Failing to Protect Us from Terrorism

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

That is how one of the chapters starts. It's a matter of when the next terrorist attack will happen, not if it will happen, according to the author, Stephen Flynn.

With absolute simplicity, common sense logic, and an irrefutable argument, he demonstrates how and why our government is failing to protect us from the terrorist threat. Industry and government are not willing to take the time and the money required to provide greater security for a war on terrorism that will never end.

Our water and food supplies, our chemical plants, and our ports are alrmingly unsecure from terrorist attack. Flynn creates a terrorist scenario demonstrating how the terrorist threat can become reality. He asserts our enemies are willing to spend the time to create the act of terror, while we are not willing to spend the time defending ourselves to foil it.

He blames industries which see no benefit in spending the money on security which will be passed on to their consumers, while non-security minded companies will maintain lower prices and take business away from the security-conscious ones.

This means that congress must act. It must set security standards that will be implemented across each industry thus spreading the cost to everyone. So far, congress, not wanting to offend their million dollar contributors have done nothing. Flynn also suggests that Americans must be willing to make the sacrifices necessary for this security.

We are operating on a World War II mentality i.e. the best defense is a good offense by taking the fight to their countries. That is not what Flynn recommends. Terrorists will always be able to get into this country. We must strengthen our security at home which will take years of dedicated preparation and action.

The author's book is a siren song. The beginning of his fourth chapter bears repeating as a end to this review. "When it comes to dealing with the new security agenda, Americans need to grow up....Terrorism is simply too cheap, too available, and too tempting ever to be totally eradicated. We must have the maturity both to live with the risk of future attacks and to invest in reasonable measures to rein in that risk."

For those who use the argument that we haven't been attacked since 9/11, remember, it took five years of planning. 9/11 is now more than five years ago. Truly, American apathy and complacency are the terrorists' greatest allies.

Edited 20 Dec 07 to add links.

Some will say this book aids the enemy, pointing out with shocking clarity the extreme vulnerabilities of our transportation, communications, and other core systems. I happen to agree with the author's core point, as Thomas Jefferson would agree: politicians will continue to ignore these vulnerabilities and lie to the public until the public achieves its own appreciation of the threat.

This is a double-spaced book, an easy read from Tampa to Dulles (2.5 hours), and well-worth any thinking person's attention. For those who disparage this book as "gloom and doom": go back to your vodka martinis.

THE fundamental point of this book, and one that I happily endorse on the basis of my other 493 reviews of national security non-fiction, is that how we spend the federal tax dollar is completely out of balance. We are spending $500 billion on a "hard power" military that can barely contain terrorism, crime, genocide, revolution, and war between states, while we are letting our states and cities go begging, and refuse to fund just 16,000 Customs inspectors, among other vital initiatives.

This is the single best book I have found that points out that in the era of asymmetric warfare, where non-state actors have both explosive and nuclear-biological-chemical power at their disposal, it is the "soft targets", the non-military infrastructure targets, which will be most attractive to the "sleeper" agents of Al Qaeda and others. Washington continues to deceive America about its vulnerability, and about Washington's feckless irresponsibility in failing to redirect funds from hard power only relevant to fighting major states, to a combination of homeland defense of soft targets, which is this book's focus, and soft power projection such as Joe Nye recommends in his various books, but especially The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone,

The author's first line is a block-buster: "If September 11, 2001 was a wake-up call, clearly America has fallen back asleep." He is right. I deal with those responsible for the "Global War on Terror" and most of them are working 9-5, spending half their day gossiping or browsing the Web. [This is still true as of 20 Dec 07, besides which, terrorism is a tactic, you cannot make war on a tactic].

In my view, the author, a former Coast Guard commander and also a National Security Council staff member, is right on target when he says that the Pentagon is guilty of an "escapist" perspective in thinking they can defeat terrorism "over there." It was this point that caused me to both buy this book in an airport, and to review it concurrently with General Tommy Franks' book American Soldier General Franks is both a superb officer, and a naive escapist, and reading this book drives that point home in a way that would make any intelligent person pleased to have spent time with the author.

There is a "seam" between our homeland security and our overseas capabilities, and there is no one in charge of any coherent program to decide how best to protect BOTH our neighborhoods AND our overseas investments.

This is a nuanced book, one that makes the point that security must become as embedded as safety has been, and the further point that security properly embedded is actually PROFITABLE! He's right. Green lanes for containers that have proper GPS and content authentications will SAVE dollars by saving time. Bio-chemical detection across all herds and food supplies will detect "natural" threats such as we have seen with SARS, monkey pox, bird flu, West Nile virus, etc.

Finally, security and openness can help reduce fraud, especially import/expert tax fraud, where containers loaded with priceless equipment are mis-labeled as low-cost machinery, or vice versa, an advanced form of money laundering that is costing the U.S. taxpayer over $50 billion a year in lost tax revenues.

Of the 1000+ books or so that I have reviewed here at Amazon, this book easily makes it into my top ten list of books relevant to getting national security right in the near term. Beyond five stars.

See also, with reviews:
Open Target: Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest

Dr. Flynn provides meaning to the issues of national security, which is the essence of intelligence. By `adding value' to the sea of raw data, telltale signs, and signals America the Vulnerable becomes the indispensable volume for everyone interested in maritime intelligence matters.

The current series of terrorist atrocities, along with the plague of transnational threats including, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction gives concern for reading information correctly. Beyond that there is a call for action. The oceans are no longer our primary mechanism for defense. These issues and more are brilliantly discussed in America the Vulnerable.

Because Dr. Flynn possesses that rare combination of experience at sea as a United States Coast Guard Officer and academician there is no better authority on the subject of maritime intelligence, national and homeland security/defense, and the best means for expending precious U.S. resources. Not one to define a problem without a solution, Dr. Flynn provides insight, candor, and imagination to solving U.S. security issues. I recommend this work as the keystone to a Maritime Intelligence course.

Stephen Flynn's work is a clear headed examination of the gaps in U.S. homeland security, focusing on frightening weaknesses in maritime and shipping container security. Given the topic and importance, the book is surprisingly short and relatively easy to read. This is, I suspect, by design to engage an audience other than security professionals in a debate of national importance.

Flynn outlines how failures of political will, bureaucratic infighting and lack of coordination between scores of government agencies have resulted in a hodgepodge of ineffectual (at best) or non-existent security safeguards. The second chapter, a frightening but seemingly plausible worst case terrorist attack scenario, serves as a springboard for subsequent chapters which detail various facets of U.S physical, process and institutional defensive weaknesses. What I found particularly interesting is the author's explanation about how the impact of decisions made to close borders, stop shipping and trade based upon the lack of knowledge of the extent and breadth of an attack, may be far more disruptive than the attack itself.

Fortunately, while Flynn sees many problems, he sets forth a compelling vision of achievable, practical measures that can be taken to address them. For instance, he warns against spending massive sums of money and large amounts of time designing and deploying so called best in class defensive mechanisms, asserting that this approach would effectively be easily circumvented by an enemy simply choosing to focus on an area for which a hardened defense has not been developed. Instead, he advocates deploying multiple layers of less expensive, pretty good (my words, not his) defensive measures that can be deployed widely and easily changed and adapted as needed.

Another interesting idea he advocates is setting up a federal security system organized along the lines of the Federal Reserve System. His belief is that it is critical that national security needs be coordinated on both a national and local level and that the federal reserve model is a successful example of such a system. Personally, this is way beyond my area of expertise and I'll leave it to others to comment on the feasibility of this concept.

Since I've read this book several months ago, I've seen the author on several TV programs and heard him interviewed on NPR. In at least one of these appearances, he made the observation that the U.S. has spent nearly 400 million dollars on enhanced port security over the past 3 years. He then went on to say that, while this sounds like a lot of money, much, much more needs to be spent to provide the U.S. mainland with adequate protection in one of our most vulnerable areas. He further noted that 400 million dollars is about what is spent in Iraq every 3 days. He takes issue with the oft made claim that "a good defense is a good offense", insisting that we must have both, and that defense should not be sacrificed or is unnecessary because of U.S. offensive measures and capabilities.

This book provides a starting point and outline for what the U.S. needs to do with regard to homeland security. Now all we need is political leaders with the will to continue the debate and flesh out and realize the vision that Flynn has set forth. It's not pretty, flashy sound bite kind of stuff, but our collective security and economic future may very well be in the balance.

I'm extremely disheartened that there are only 10 reviews for what I believe to be an incredibly important book. One can only hope that this does <u>not</u> mean that the author's warnings aren't being heard above the din of partisan white noise and government agency turf wars. This book should be required reading for our government and military leaders.

Written in a straightforward, accessible manner, Flynn is able to clearly articulate the dangers we face here in the homeland while offering some constructive suggestions to get our leaders moving in the right direction. Thankfully, the latter sections on the things we can do to mitigate the dangers somewhat offsets the scariness of the current situation.

Overall, his background and credentials lend credence to the frightening vulnerabilites he postulates about. I just hope someone in a position to do something about it takes the time to take his critiques seriously -- perhaps even inviting him into the discussions that will lead to some positive changes in our heretofore limited work towards true preparedness.

After you finish reading this book, pass it along to your Congressional Representative!

The book by Dr. Flynn is interesting and thought provoking, but I think he is too preoccupied in this book with the terrorists looking to hit a proverbial homerun on causing disruptions to our society and civilization - financially, politically, and socially. Then again, the attacks on 11 September 2001 were homeruns in every sense of the word.

The book I believe is nonpartisan, but it levels its arguments against the legislative branch of our government, though the executive branch and military are not immune to the criticisms. Dr. Flynn provides several examples of what some weak points are in our infrastructure system, and since the publishing of the book, Congress has already debated two issues dealing with our nation's anti-terrorism/force protection: a $100M spending package to upgrade our ports and additional restrictions on the chemical industry. Both of the items were turned down. I came to the sad realization after I had read the book of two items: the way our leaders brush aside constructive criticism in favor for the might of the dollar, and the infamous "blame-game" and "what-is-your-spin" that will soon follow should a successful terrorist attack happen our soil. Dr. Flynn does not advocate the government to restrict either civil liberties or company profiteering with the implementation of additional security measures, just a wiser way to limit the ability of a terrorist attack. There is no ironclad system to limit the terrorists, even if there were an unlimited amount of money available.

Finally, Dr. Flynn does a pretty good job to provide some illustrations of the infrastructure vulnerable to possible attacks. Those infrastructures could be anywhere in the states.

I do not know what came out more clearly from this book, it was either that America has so many vulnerable points that protecting them is a job that is almost beyond comprehension or that what we have done over the past 3 years has not had much of an effect on core security. The author, who has been involved in Americas security needs for his whole professional life, is concerned. He sees significant and numerous holes in the homeland security apparatus that has been reengineered since the 9/11 attacks. He spends a good deal of the book detailing out one threat after another, even going so far as to spell out a multiple dirty bomb attack that made me think I was reading a Clancy book. He focuses on the not very flashy, but important base infrastructure components that effect every day life. Transportation, electrical power, emergency services to name a few. The other half of the time the author details out the many ways the current Federal government bureaucracy is working is such an inefficient and idiotic way that one could make the case that their efforts might actually be making us less safe.

So did the author over state the case, is the book one massive country ending catastrophe after another that only the sharpest minds in Hollywood could have thought of? I do not think so. The favorite boggy man of this type of book is the famous nuclear suit case bombs that the old USSR seemed to be able to make is production line efficacy, but then called in the keystone cops to administer security. Then a disgruntled Al Queda agent some how buys one and smuggles it into the Super Bowl or some other such high profile event. Well the book stays away from this fiction novel favorite and focuses more on the more probable conventional bomb similar to the 1993 WTC attack. The author spells out any number of ways this could happen and the effects one or multiple of these type of bombs could cause if they were placed with some forethought. The picture is concerning and just maybe border line dramatic. After all significant events happen all the time in the US and we pull through. Just think of the massive destruction caused by the Florida hurricane season in 2004, state wide and huge yet the US was able to provide services to the effected areas. Could one bomb do as much wide spread damage? No doubt the death toll would be hire but the country coming to an end comments seamed a bit much.

Overall I enjoyed the book. Just don't settle in for too long, the double spacing and rather thick margins made me think of college when I was tying page formatting tricks to get the desired page count on a particularly difficult term paper. I would have liked more detail and the author could have helped his cause by expanding on his proposed homeland security over sight board. Did he over play his case? I don't think so, I just do not think the book will get to a wide audience because of the message. Who wants to read page after page about how our government is missing the boat on one of it not its most important duty. It makes for rather spooky reading.

Flynn first defines the vulnerabilities in international freight shipping with about 15 million 40x8x8 (feet) containers and only so many inspectors. His solutions with already existing technology and a more efficiently organized search pattern seems plausable. In other chapters he defines the difficulties and gives possible solutions for terrorist disruption in the sectors of finance, infomation processing, transportation, energy, and disease control. His chapter on reorganizing the Department of Home Security based on the structure of the Federal Reserve System (not his original idea, he points out) is worth the price of the book alone. As I finished the book, I couldn't help thinking that this retired Coast Guard officer (where he had executive experience) and now Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations would himself make a very effective Secretary of Home Security in the near future.

This is a clearly written, well reasoned book on how to provide real security for the U.S. homeland. To his credit, its author Stephan Flynn wastes no time either in partisan bashing of the current administration or in dissecting the many faults of the Department of Homeland Security. Rather he immediately shares his analysis of why domestic security in the U.S .is such an elusive goal. In the course of a number of chapters he builds a pretty strong case that in spite of all the talk, the U.S. is just as vulnerable to terrorist attacks as it was in 2000 before the 9/11 catastrophe. Flynn provides some specific examples what these vulnerabilities are and is especially effective in his analysis of shipping port vulnerabilities as a result of the exponential growth of containerized shipping. He also provides what appears to be a sensible and more importantly doable plan to actually reduce our vulnerabilities to terrorist attacks. He is an advocate of applying that long held business concept of `risk management' to the practice of homeland security. Like Richard Posner (Preventing Surprise Attacks - amazon.com) he points out the impossibility of making the U.S. completely immune to any terrorist threat and argues that it makes far better sense to rationally and logically identify which potential targets in the U.S. would cause the most loss of life and economic or social disruption if attacked and build a dynamic and multilayered defensive system to protect those targets.

Of course, Flynn is a former Coast Guard officer so his prescriptions for protecting America are practical not theoretical. Having spent twenty years protecting U.S. interests in our coastal waters, his thought on how to protect this country is based on a realistic understanding of the threats we face and a knowledge of what actually can be done to mitigate those threats. It is a shame that the Department of Homeland Security has not seen fit to follow his example.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the short comings of our Homeland Security Department. I initially bought the book after thumbing through it and finding a section on the lack of security with our cargo containers, a specific worry of mine.

This book not only breaks down where we are vulnerable, it explains why and offers workable solutions as to how to reduce this vulnerability. The book is a bit frightening in a way, when you read and realize how vulnerable we really are, even after 6 years of security measures. Why isn't more being done? What are the government officials covering up?

What makes this book hit like a sledgehammer is the credentials of the author. He was a Coast Guard Commander for 20 years, an expert in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been on Congressional Task forces studying the problems in homeland security as well as serving in the White House Military Office during President George H. Bush administration and director for Global Issues on the National Security Council during the Administration of President Bill Clinton. Stephen Flynn is obviously an expert on this issue and his words should be given their due weight.

Bottom line, insightful, a bit frightening, definitely a book to read if you like current events or really want to know how safe we actually are.